Tolkien Tuesday: Reading "The Lord of the Rings: Many Partings"
Frodo, Aragorn, and the others continue to leave the Third Age behind and to build a new Fourth Age, with all of the pain and melancholy that entails.
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Welcome to Tolkien Tuesdays, where I talk about various things that I love about the lore and writings of Tolkien, whether in a chapter reading or a character study or an essay. I hope you enjoy reading these ruminations as much as I enjoy writing them and, if you have a moment, I’d love it if you’d subscribe to this newsletter. It’s free, but there are paid options, as well, if you’re of a mind to support a struggling writer. Either way, thank you for joining me!
We’re drawing closer and closer to the end of The Return of the King, and this chapter, like so many in the second half of this book, primarily focuses on the characters as they continue to grapple with the aftermath of the War of the Ring, the destruction of Sauron, and the dawning of the Fourth Age. Even though this is a chapter that is rather languid in its pace, there’s still a lot that happens, things that will continue to have an impact on the characters, particularly Frodo and the other hobbits, once they return to the Shire and start to rebuild their lives. Among other things, this chapter focuses on a fateful meeting with Treebeard, an encounter with the exiled and thoroughly ragged Saruman, and Frodo’s grappling with both his future and his past.
As wise as Treebeard is in many ways, his decision to release Saruman can’t but be seen as a strategic mistake, one that shows two important things. One, of course, is the fact that he really doesn’t quite grasp just how much of a subtle thinker and manipulator Saruman remains, even now that his plans are in ashes and his designs brought to nothing. His Entish sensibilities–hence the desire not to see anything caged, not even a renegade Wizard–make him susceptible to Saruman’s blandishments and his cunning voice. This leads to the second thing, which is that Saruman still has a hand to play, and that he’s not quite as defeated as we might have thought when we watched Gandalf call him back and destroy his staff.
For his part, Saruman proves to be utterly resistant to any kind of redemption. He has had a taste of power and, more to the point, he has also become hopelessly corrupted by his dalliance with Sauron and his own desire for the One Ring (one shudders to think how much damage he could have caused had he actually managed to get his hands on it). Thus it is that he spurns any offer of kindness or compassion from those who now stand over him in his abject state. His pride, like that of so many of the other villains of Tolkien’s universe, is overweening, and he ends up hurting himself far more than others do. Even now there is still the possibility that he might be welcomed back into the fold, but he simply can’t bring himself to even offer a kind of generous word to his friends and former compatriots, let alone accept the grace that they still offer him, even though he most certainly doesn’t deserve it.
This whole exchange is also emblematic of how Tolkien views evil. Saruman, like Sauron, simply can’t see the world outside of his own narrow–and really quite twisted–perspective. He believes that Galadriel has always hated and distrusted him and that she did so for selfish reasons, namely that she wanted to elevate Gandalf at his expense. Given that we’ve already seen the extent to which Saruman is deeply, pathologically, jealous of his fellow Wizard, this makes a perverted kind of sense. If you’re an insecure person, or if you’re convinced of your own greatness and our own centrality to the universe and everyone in it, of course you’re going to assume that everyone has it out for you. This, I think, is the thing that makes Saruman such a fascinating and ultimately tragic character. He’s just too wrapped up in himself to ever gain the redemption that he seems to desire, at least on some level, which helps to explain why he spurns this offer of forgiveness yet reaches out to the West when he’s slain in the Shire.
Thus are the complexities and nuances of evil.
Saruman is right about one thing, however: those who were responsible for the destruction of Saruman and Sauron have indeed paved the way for their own obsolescence. We’ve already seen that there is no longer a place for Gandalf and Galadriel in this new Fourth Age that is dawning all around them, but the difference between them and Saruman is that they see this as a worthy sacrifice. They’ve made Middle-earth safe again for those who come after, and that is a reward in its own right. Moreover, both Gandalf and Galadriel–and all of those others who are set to depart across the Sea–ultimately realize that it is better to depart on their own terms than to diminish in Middle-earth. This is, in part, what makes them so wise in the Tolkienian view of the world: they understand the limits of their own power and their own presence. Unlike Saruman and Sauron, who want to cling to power no matter what, they are willing to give it up so that others take up the burden.
Treebeard, likewise, seems to have accepted that the time for the Ents is drawing to a close. Thus, even though Aragorn tells him that it might be possible to rediscover the Entwives–since the lands to the East are now open in a way that they haven’t been in years–he doesn’t seem excited about or even interested in pursuing such a path. There are, it seems, simply too many Men to make such a project feasible. This is yet another indication that, though the world has indeed been saved from the very worst outcome, there are still wounds and damage that can never be fully healed. Time has moved on, and while Men will continue their onward march, many of the beings with which they once shared the world are fated to remain in the past, a reminder of what has been given up so that the future may be guaranteed.
As time will tell, this particular realization will strike most powerfully when it comes to Frodo. Indeed, the chapter begins with Arwen offering him her place on the ship that is to depart the Grey Havens. It’s a powerful exchange, not least because it reminds us of just how much this beautiful and beloved Elf has given up so that she can pursue her love of Aragorn. With the usual wisdom and perspicacity of her kind, she seems to know that Frodo will never be free of the sounds he’s endured and the shadow that still lays across his heart. It’s heartbreaking to realize, but there is beauty, too. The twining together of beauty and sorrow is, as always, a key part of what makes Tolkien, Tolkien.
That’s it for this week. Join me next week as we get closer to the Shire and to the last fateful encounter with Saruman.